I'm currently going through EA's recent "Jedi" games. Jedi: Fallen Order has been an amazing experience with great level design and so many secrets to discover!

Jedi Survivor improved on the combat, made the world even bigger, I absolutely love it. It's an absolute beast of a game, maxing out my 3060 to 100% with 11.5GB VRAM used. It also uses over 32GB of RAM, I've never seen my Dual Xeon workstation get so worked up! No wonder so many people are complaining about performance problems in the reviews.

clueless1 wrote on 2024-05-19, 18:13:

I meant to say index finger on W. My bad. Here's a pic I sneaked:

But... Now I'm only even more confused!

Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire
I played through the first game last year, and although I really didn't like it the first few times I played it, I eventually got hooked and blasted through the entire game in just a couple of months (just under 70 hours to do nearly everything!). It was an awesome game, so I've been looking forward to playing the sequel.

Just like with PoE, I'm using a full custom party by hiring adventurers at the first tavern you find. This game makes it easier than the first game, because the party size has been reduced from six to five (boo!), and because you easily earn enough money just by following the plot to hire four characters once you reach the first tavern. I wanted to recreate my party from PoE (Fighter, Paladin, Barbarian, Priest, Rogue, Wizard), but since you can only have four companions, I decided to drop the Barbarian... which was fine, because the coolest thing about the Barbarian from the first game was nerfed (carnage ability).

So far, this is quite an improvement over the already excellent PoE! The graphics are MUCH better, and character building is a lot more involved. You can multiclass characters, and can select subclasses that provide bonuses and penalties over the standard classes. I imagine it would be pretty cool to replay the game with different parties, and really minmax certain classes. It still carries over the system from PoE, where there are really no dump stats and every attribute is useful in one way or another for every class.

It's also got a much better opening. The biggest problem with getting into PoE, imo, is that you have to play through a somewhat lengthy intro that basically has nothing to do with the rest of the game, and then after that it immediately sticks you in a big, boring town with a big, somewhat difficult dungeon under it. I suspect a LOT of people didn't get much further into the game. In PoE II, you play a brief intro in which you are shipwrecked, and then you're immediately off exploring an island with plenty of stuff to find and do.

Unlike PoE, the game now even has a turn-based combat mode for people who hate RTwP, though thanks to playing through Baldur's Gate, Icewind Dale, and PoE over the last 2-3 years, I can now appreciate RTwP and that's how I'm playing PoE2. Very nice so far.

newtmonkey wrote on 2024-05-25, 14:25:

Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire I played through the first game last year, and although I really didn't like it the first few t […]
Show full quote

Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire
I played through the first game last year, and although I really didn't like it the first few times I played it, I eventually got hooked and blasted through the entire game in just a couple of months (just under 70 hours to do nearly everything!). It was an awesome game, so I've been looking forward to playing the sequel.

Just like with PoE, I'm using a full custom party by hiring adventurers at the first tavern you find. This game makes it easier than the first game, because the party size has been reduced from six to five (boo!), and because you easily earn enough money just by following the plot to hire four characters once you reach the first tavern. I wanted to recreate my party from PoE (Fighter, Paladin, Barbarian, Priest, Rogue, Wizard), but since you can only have four companions, I decided to drop the Barbarian... which was fine, because the coolest thing about the Barbarian from the first game was nerfed (carnage ability).

So far, this is quite an improvement over the already excellent PoE! The graphics are MUCH better, and character building is a lot more involved. You can multiclass characters, and can select subclasses that provide bonuses and penalties over the standard classes. I imagine it would be pretty cool to replay the game with different parties, and really minmax certain classes. It still carries over the system from PoE, where there are really no dump stats and every attribute is useful in one way or another for every class.

It's also got a much better opening. The biggest problem with getting into PoE, imo, is that you have to play through a somewhat lengthy intro that basically has nothing to do with the rest of the game, and then after that it immediately sticks you in a big, boring town with a big, somewhat difficult dungeon under it. I suspect a LOT of people didn't get much further into the game. In PoE II, you play a brief intro in which you are shipwrecked, and then you're immediately off exploring an island with plenty of stuff to find and do.

Unlike PoE, the game now even has a turn-based combat mode for people who hate RTwP, though thanks to playing through Baldur's Gate, Icewind Dale, and PoE over the last 2-3 years, I can now appreciate RTwP and that's how I'm playing PoE2. Very nice so far.

The naval portions are a drag.

Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire
I put a few more hours into this over the weekend. So far, so good. It actually starts out quite difficult even on the "normal" difficulty level, as one of the mandatory encounters is actually pretty tough for a level 1 party; it must be even harder if you are playing just with the companions you find up until that point. There's a good mix of town stuff and (small) dungeon exploration on the first island, and I really like how the game handles overland exploration this time around, with your party icon traveling from place to place as time advances. It gives the game a bit of a unique feel compared with the first PoE (and of course, its main inspiration, Baldur's Gate).

Once you complete the main quest on the first island, you get access to a ship and can sail around the world exploring and discovering stuff. There's actually more to it than just selecting destinations on a map, as sailing around is its own little minigame, where you have to assign characters you hire to positions on your ship, watch your resources, keep your ship repaired, and even make upgrades when you can afford it. There's also ship-to-ship combat, though I haven't been attacked yet.

One thing that really annoys me about this game is that a lot of the NPCs using words from made-up languages, that are basically just minor spelling differences from English. You'll meet Ducs and Erls, and if people get mad at you they might tell you to go to Hel. It doesn't immerse you in the lore; in fact, it takes you out of the game because it's so ridiculous. You also get NPCs that speak to you in perfect "English" (or whatever the common language is in the PoE world) but pepper their dialog with what seems to be Italian with some letters switched around. It breaks immersion, and doesn't even make sense to me. The fact that they are using "Vailian" words suggests that they are speaking to you in their second language for your benefit, but they are speaking in completely fluent English (or whatever) on complicated subjects... so why do they need to say "Aimico/Aimica" instead of "friend" or "perfetto" instead of "perfect ("great")?"

It's just something that annoys me, like when you watch some old war movie and the American/British actors playing the Germans speak to each other in English but with German accents. Just a personal pet peeve.

newtmonkey wrote on 2024-05-26, 14:57:

Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire I put a few more hours into this over the weekend. So far, so good. It actually starts out qu […]
Show full quote

Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire
I put a few more hours into this over the weekend. So far, so good. It actually starts out quite difficult even on the "normal" difficulty level, as one of the mandatory encounters is actually pretty tough for a level 1 party; it must be even harder if you are playing just with the companions you find up until that point. There's a good mix of town stuff and (small) dungeon exploration on the first island, and I really like how the game handles overland exploration this time around, with your party icon traveling from place to place as time advances. It gives the game a bit of a unique feel compared with the first PoE (and of course, its main inspiration, Baldur's Gate).

Once you complete the main quest on the first island, you get access to a ship and can sail around the world exploring and discovering stuff. There's actually more to it than just selecting destinations on a map, as sailing around is its own little minigame, where you have to assign characters you hire to positions on your ship, watch your resources, keep your ship repaired, and even make upgrades when you can afford it. There's also ship-to-ship combat, though I haven't been attacked yet.

One thing that really annoys me about this game is that a lot of the NPCs using words from made-up languages, that are basically just minor spelling differences from English. You'll meet Ducs and Erls, and if people get mad at you they might tell you to go to Hel. It doesn't immerse you in the lore; in fact, it takes you out of the game because it's so ridiculous. You also get NPCs that speak to you in perfect "English" (or whatever the common language is in the PoE world) but pepper their dialog with what seems to be Italian with some letters switched around. It breaks immersion, and doesn't even make sense to me. The fact that they are using "Vailian" words suggests that they are speaking to you in their second language for your benefit, but they are speaking in completely fluent English (or whatever) on complicated subjects... so why do they need to say "Aimico/Aimica" instead of "friend" or "perfetto" instead of "perfect ("great")?"

It's just something that annoys me, like when you watch some old war movie and the American/British actors playing the Germans speak to each other in English but with German accents. Just a personal pet peeve.

I'm right with you, man. That sounds pretty irritating. I wonder what they were thinking? I've completed POE1, but haven't played 2 yet. Overall, it sounds worth it from your description so far despite the weird language thing, but that will be a way's off for me. I have a huge backlog of already-owned games. Speaking of which...
Might and Magic III
I'm sure I'm getting close. The past few days I've been home recovering from a surgery, so I had some extra time the past few days to sink about 5 hours in. Total gameplay time so far is 80 hours. I've cleared a couple of late-game dungeons:
1) Dragon Cavern in section F1 in the Mutant Mountains in the most Northeastern section of the world map. According to Corak's Notes: "Only fools make their homes among the slopes of the Mutant Mountains, as they are very unsteady and highly prone to avalanche. But fools there are, for nature is not the only danger in this northern region. Evil agents wander the snowy terrain in search of hapless victims." The key takeaways from Dragon Cavern are tons of gold (15 million - enough to make leveling up for the rest of the game more doable), some Obsidian items to upgrade my characters' armor and weapons, and a boss battle with The Dragon Lord. He is 100% resistant to all forms of attack except physical, so it was a matter of buffing up my front four and taking him out with melee before he could get to my Sorcerer or Cleric. We got him on the first try, though most of my party was near death by the time he went down.
2) The Magic Cavern in section E4 in Buzzard Bluff. This is a huge desert in the southmost section of the map. Corak says: "Visit the six wells to partake of the magic waters that flow beneath this desert isle. Their powers are among the greatest in all of Terra. But beware the Barbarians that claim this land as their stomping grounds, for nearby is a compound where they drink themselves into a frenzy that can only be quenched by the thrill of battle." Magic Cavern had five pools each of Speed and Intelligence enhancement, which I distributed to my party to help with initiative in combat as well as increasing spell points for my Sorcerer and Ranger. The initiative is so important when battling the Liches in this cavern. They aren't that hard to kill for my high level party, but if he gets an attack in before I take him down, it usually means instant death for at least one party member. So l save before each battle. Most of the time, they are in coffins which you open and get instant initiative, but there was one secret room where a Lich was wandering in so it was a matter of figuring out how to take him out before he could get an attack in. Another "feature" of this cavern are blue flames that when walked through extinguish your light spell. There was a blue flame in front of the door that this Lich was behind. If I took time to cast another light spell after opening the door, he'd always get an attack in. So I eventually opened the door (and lost light spell), then cast an Implosion spell blindly, which took him out.

Now that I've cleared The Magic Cavern, I'm in the process of exploring the rest of Buzzard Bluff. There are lots of buried treasures in the desert sand, but most of them when unearthed will lead to a battle with at least one Vulture Roc. These guys have a speed rating of 100 and can paralyze if they hit. I think once I clear all the southern desert lands, I will have cleared every land mass on the map. Then it will be time to visit the Pyramids which starts the endgame sequences.

clueless1 wrote on 2024-05-26, 17:00:

I think once I clear all the southern desert lands, I will have cleared every land mass on the map. Then it will be time to visit the Pyramids which starts the endgame sequences.

Check that. It looks like I have to collect 11 King's Ultimate Orbs and give them to the King of my choice (good, neutral, evil). THEN I have to get six Hologram Sequencing Cards to start the endgame. I guess there are several Caverns, Dungeons and Castles that I have not completely cleared out yet. 😀 Probably some items in the Pyramids too. I've just peaked into the Pyramids I've found so far as they were too tough for my party at the time I found them. Now's the time, I guess!

Still on Halo 3: ODST. Didn't have a lot of time for gaming due to other obligations, so I was playing it on and off during the last few weeks.

The sections where you play as the Rookie are a bit too slow for my taste, but I understand why the developers went in that direction. They are also very dark, so you have to rely on the visor thing, but even that doesn't help a whole lot inside buildings. I'd prefer to have a standard flashlight. Also, all the city areas start looking overly similar after a while.

On the flip side, the other trooper missions are pretty good, with lots of action and some nice vehicle combat segments too. As usual, I had a blast whenever I was driving something big, like a Scorpion tank. I still remember that marine line from Halo 2: "Tank beats everything!" 😁

Anyway, call me a blasphemer if you want, but so far, I'm not digging ODST as much as the OG Halo 3. Not saying it's a bad game, just that it doesn't appeal as much to my personal taste. That said, I think I'm about half way through now, so I might as well finish it.

Have been playing Blackthorne (the 2012?rerelease) and to my surprise liked the game so much that despite some bugs and somewhat repetitive puzzles went all the way to the final boss. I tried it before in the 90s and never got further than few first levels. The boss level I am unable to beat so far, but who knows...
Using a d-pad handheld for this with DOSBox.

Completed Halo 3: ODST. Turns out I was closer to the finish line that I previously thought. Also, traversing the city as the Rookie got a bit easier after I discovered those supply caches which (among other things) contained a few buggies that you could drive. No longer having to slowly walk through a bunch of empty streets was very much appreciated.

The action did pick up during the last quarter of the game, after the Rookie caught up with the rest of the team. I especially enjoyed that final mission where you're driving a Warthog and a Scorpion tank before the big showdown. Some of the armored Brutes during the last couple of stages were a bit too bullet spongey, but the fights were still fun.

And while I can't say I liked ODST as much as the OG Halo 3, it wasn't too far behind either. Like I said before, some of those Rookie sections dragged on a bit too long, but otherwise, it was pretty solid. Also, I liked how the story concluded. It felt very much earned, since you got to play as each of those troopers. Not bad overall.

Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire
I simply cannot stop playing this game. I want to immediately start it back up again every time I exit the game.

Sailing is such a good addition. It gives the game a unique feel (far better than the actual lore of the game imo), and once you've got access to your ship the whole world is basically wide open for you to explore. The world map starts out covered with cloud that clears as you explore, and the world is full of stuff to find... mysterious islands, abandoned (?) forts, lost settlements, etc. It's so much fun to just pick a direction and sail, and see what you discover.

Otherwise, it plays mostly like the first game. One major difference I've noticed so far is that there is far less combat in this game, and that the encounters seem to have been designed with a little more thought. That's good, because exploring dungeons in the first game could get a little dull since you often ran into the same groups of enemies room after room.

A great game, so far!

newtmonkey wrote on 2024-05-29, 15:03:

Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire I simply cannot stop playing this game. I want to immediately start it back up again every tim […]
Show full quote

Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire
I simply cannot stop playing this game. I want to immediately start it back up again every time I exit the game.

Sailing is such a good addition. It gives the game a unique feel (far better than the actual lore of the game imo), and once you've got access to your ship the whole world is basically wide open for you to explore. The world map starts out covered with cloud that clears as you explore, and the world is full of stuff to find... mysterious islands, abandoned (?) forts, lost settlements, etc. It's so much fun to just pick a direction and sail, and see what you discover.

Otherwise, it plays mostly like the first game. One major difference I've noticed so far is that there is far less combat in this game, and that the encounters seem to have been designed with a little more thought. That's good, because exploring dungeons in the first game could get a little dull since you often ran into the same groups of enemies room after room.

A great game, so far!

Glad you are enjoying it, I'd be interested to hear your opinion on the ship combat, I hated that more than anything, I felt it was very poorly implemented, I wish the ship had just been transportation.

Shagittarius wrote on 2024-05-29, 15:06:

Glad you are enjoying it, I'd be interested to hear your opinion on the ship combat, I hated that more than anything, I felt it was very poorly implemented, I wish the ship had just been transportation.

Thanks! Honestly, I have been avoiding ship combat, and instead just board the enemy ship and go to melee combat.

The Secret of Monkey Island:
As great as ever, still brings a near constant smile on my face and occasionally even made me laugh out loud. Never pay more than 20 bucks for a computer game! Maybe the part where you need to learn the insults and their comebacks drags on a bit, but it doesn't take too long.

Got stuck once and instead of my brain remembering the solution all it remembered was I had gotten stuck there before. That's not helpful at all! Thanks brain. The good old adventure game remedy of sleeping on it worked and off I went.

Maybe it's a bit short and simple if you compare it to later games, but who cares if it's this fun to play? A classic through and through, I rate it eleven bananas out of five rubber chickens.

Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge:
There are a couple games out there that I'm just hopelessly nostalgic about and Monkey Island 2 stands on top of that hill. This game is to me like having a seat by a fireplace after a cold winter day, a metric ton of warm fuzzies concentrated into a single game. It's bigger, longer and more challenging than the first game, and then there's the soundtrack. For me even the plain old Adlib rendition is already absolutely dripping with feel good wibes but the MT-32 rendition transcends it to entirely another level, it's so good!

My only issues with the game are that I remember it all too well, I've played it so many times throughout the years that even when I don't consciously remember what to do next my subconsciousness takes over and autopilots me forward, so there goes that brain workout I enjoy in adventure games. That and also the ending is a bit weird.

So yeah, I kinda like the game in case you didn't notice. On a scale of Mr. Willy Gorilla to Stan's previously owned coffins I rate it twenty-seven Guybrush the dogs.

Monkey Island is like getting laid for the first time. Monkey Island 2 is like attending your first swinger party.

Rotfl

Sombrero wrote on 2024-05-31, 09:44:

This game is to me like having a seat by a fireplace after a cold winter day, a metric ton of warm fuzzies concentrated into a single game.

some games feel like "home" somehow, and its not always ones from childhood, sometimes its the game environment itself, the time of life you played it, some aspect that you really connected to.

i find it a realy interesting thing, same hapens for some books, movies and songs too - probably other things like a particular car, a walk in a particular park at a specific time - experiences which are outwardly similar to others but somehow 'special'

anyway, monkey island seems to hold that special place for plenty of folk 😀

Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire
What a game! There's so much to do in this game, and all of it is so fun. After the intro area the game really just sets you loose in the world, and you can just do what you want. You can decide to just follow the plot, stick around the main port city and do missions for the various factions, or sail the seas and explore the world. I'm around 20 hours in, and it feels like the game is just endless as there's so much stuff to do, and most of it is excellent.

Having completed the first game, this is a very easy game so far on the default difficulty level once you get a couple of hours into the game. It might be more difficult for someone jumping right in without having played the first game, as it's much more complex than Baldur's Gate for instance. The game does have some options to increase the difficulty for those looking for a challenge, including higher difficulty levels and an option to scale all encounters to your party level. The game also shows the relative difficulty level of each quest in your log, based on your current level, so if you're looking for a challenge even on default settings, you could go attempt a quest the game has ranked too difficult for your party.

The Curse of Monkey Island
The third game in the series, first time playing. I suppose the reputation of not being as good as the first two have kept me away from the third and fourth game in the series, but since I got the discs for this with Monkey Island Bounty Pack rerelease I got some time ago I figured I might as well give it a go.

It was pretty alright! Didn't blow my mind and make me beat myself for not playing it for all these years but it was fine, honestly a bit better than what I expected. It does kinda have this B-class feel to it, like it's the work of a secondary team while the remaining big guns still at LucasArts were working on Grim Fandango. I still enjoyed playing it, quite a lot at times actually. Even got a few genuine good laughs out of me so it definitely has its moments.

There's a lot of references to the first two games. A LOT of them. At times it kinda felt like a third party fan game instead of an official third installment, it's basically a love letter to the first two. But it does have some own ideas too, like a banjo duel which I kinda loved. There's also all kinds of unnecessary but fun stuff that have animations and even voice acting that you just don't see if the people working on it are only there for the paycheck. And it does explain away the odd ending of Monkey 2, so that's a plus.

There was one part I REALLY didn't care for though. The insult/comeback dueling from the first game was not only brought back, it's also way worse. It drags on a bit in the first game, but this time you don't only have to go through the same process of learning all the insults and their comepacks, you also need to do ship combat with non-ideal controls while constantly having to sail to port to upgrade your cannons. You can set the ship combat to easy mode, which I absolutely did to get it done faster, but the whole thing still felt like repetitious and tedious time waste. A short "remember this" callback puzzle would have been far better than this pain in the ass.

I have some other smaller nitpicks too, like Guybrush walks a little too slowly, why the hell is he 3 meters tall now, some conversations just keep going on and on for far too long and why did they have to copy the most annoying aspect of the last puzzle of Monkey 2, but all in all I was happy with it. On a scale of alright to alright I rate it one of the most alrightest games I've played in a while.

appiah4 wrote on 2024-05-31, 09:57:

Monkey Island is like getting laid for the first time. Monkey Island 2 is like attending your first swinger party.

To add to this, Monkey Island 3 is sex with your wife - you are going through the motions. Return to Monkey Island is having sex with your wife of 20 years - the rarity of the experience is what makes it so special.